Greenville Ingles store worker's kindness caught on camera goes viral

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WYFF) - An emotional Facebook post about the kindness of a Greenville grocery store worker has gone viral.

Bo Graf posted a message on the Ingles Market Facebook page after he saw a worker leading an older woman to her car in the parking lot. Graf said the moment touched him.

Graf wrote: "This weekend left me with such doubt and sadness for Our America! Although I eat at Ingles regularly, for some reason I left a little later for lunch today! God put me at this place, this moment in time for a reason. Maybe it's simply to capture this moment. Maybe to change the way I look at the world today and the kids of tomorrow. Or perhaps how I could change the way I live each day. There are so many reasons that put me in this brief moment.

"I went and spoke to the young man, Brandon Rollins, and told him what he did meant a lot more than just helping a little lady today. It touched my life as well as I hope touches all of your lives. I personally haven't seen anything like this in years and thought everyone should see/feel this moment as well. This is how America should be! And hopefully this is the America of tomorrow!!!"

Graf said, "Somebody from Wichita, Kansas, sent me a message saying they wanted to use it. Like, 'Oh my gosh --absolutely!' It's just taken off."

The post was featured on Today.com. As of Thursday morning, it had gotten 12,000 reactions, 290 comments and nearly 700 shares.

Graf's original post on Ingles' page was shared more than 1,300 times and had nearly 4,000 reactions.

Graf talked to WYFF News 4 Thursday about the image that is traveling around the world on social media.

"I walked up, 30 minutes later than I usually am, and I thought, 'My gosh, God put me in this place at just the right time because I needed it.' I didn't know anyone else would need it as much as I did. I took the picture and I knew it was something special," Graf said. "But I had no idea. And I went up to him after that and he acted like it was no big deal. And that's what it needs to be. That's what the world needs to see -- people that say, 'It's no big deal.'"

"This was the perfect capture to show there is still some good in the world," he said. "I'm just so touched that it's reached so many people. When I took that and posted it to Ingles, I really didn't expect much from it because that's what the norm should be. It doesn't matter what ethnicity, religious belief -- we're all the same. We're all one, and we can help each other out. That's what the news needs to see. That's what people in the world need to see. We can come together as one. It doesn't matter your background."

"That's what it was about -- both people coming as one. They were fine with it. There was no hatred -- nothing in the world at that moment. It should be timeless."

Ingles responded to the post with the following statement from CFO Ron Freeman: "Over the years we've had many associates that began working for us as teenagers, like Brandon. We have always tried to create a friendly, caring environment for our associates and for our customers. Brandon's actions epitomize that and we couldn't be prouder of him."

The next day the store posted a picture of Brandon with a large cake. The post said his co-workers thanked him for his example of kindness that made the news.

Graf thinks that the type of kindness Brandon showed is more common in Greenville than many places.

"I've been many places in the world, and this is by far one of the nicest communities that I've been," he said. "It's good to see friendly people on a daily basis here."

Mobile users who have a Facebook account can see the post by clicking here.